Flake opposed using a shutdown as leverage to defund Obamacare from the start because he didn't think the strategy would work.

"If you're going to take a stand on something, the other side has to fear a shutdown," Flake said on MSNBC's Morning Joe at the beginning of October. "In this case, I think the Democrats knew that if there were to be a shutdown, that it would be Republicans who take the blame. And so you're threatening to do something that the other side isn't very fearful of."